Twisting Timelines
by amaresu
Summary: Meetings through time. Crossover with Highlander. Martha/Methos


The first time she meets him is on one of Jupiter's moons. She doesn't remember which one and she can't help but feel that if she never saw Jupiter again it would be too soon. Sometimes that thought makes her laugh because she never would have thought she'd be sick of Jupiter, but they'd been all over the moons in the past few weeks trying to find a replacement part for the TARDIS and she was more than ready to say good bye. Especially since the Doctor kept wondering off and leaving her in the middle of various market places. It's during one such abandonment that the owner of the stall in front of her looks up, smiles and then practically yells out her name.

Before she could reply he had made his way around the stall and was sweeping her up into a hug. After a few seconds of struggling he sets her down and grins. She backs away a few feet and then demands that he tell her who he is. He looks confused at first and then mentions something about time travelers and laughs. All he says is, "Guess you had to meet me eventually."

"And just who the hell are you?" She isn't finding any of this funny and starts looking for escape routes.

With something close to a giggle he leans forward and whispers Methos into her ear. Backing up again he says louder, "James Callahan."

More confused then before, which she hadn't thought possible, she glares at him. "And that's supposed to mean something to me?"

"Not yet it's not." Then he grins again, like he has some special secret that he's dying to tell her. "It will though, because I've known you for as long as I can remember."

Suddenly the comment about time travelers makes sense. "You mean I'm going to meet you again, but you've already met me?"

"Exactly. We'll have great fun together, Martha Jones." He walks back into his stall and gestures for her to follow him. After she sits down on the extra seat he hits a couple of buttons on the control panel and turns off the stall. Suddenly they are surrounded by silence and there is a closed notice floating in the window. "I'm only going to tell you this because you already know it. Or will know it."

With only that for a preamble he sits back, pulls a beer out of a freezer by their feet, and launches into the story of who and what he is. After traveling the universe and seeing some of the things she's seen Immortals and the Game don't seem that weird. Finding out the man in front of her is almost six thousand years old does.

It's almost two hours before the Doctor finds them, triumphantly holding the spare part aloft. He loses his happy expression upon seeing Methos though. "Martha, we should get going now."

Methos looks at the Doctor with something close to disdain and then smirks at her. "Seems the Doctor still doesn't like my kind."

"I just don't approve of a species determined to commit self-genocide." The Doctor replies with righteous indignation in his voice.

Methos merely leans back and says, "It's good that we neither want nor need your approval then, isn't it?"

The Doctor glared back at him and turns from the stall, gesturing for her to follow. She's getting ready to argue with him when Methos leans forward and whispers in her ear that it was okay. He hugs her again and kisses her cheek and then walks off between the now closed stalls. Before he gets too far away he yells back at her, "It's not like we won't be seeing each other again after all."

She laughs and then hooks her arm in with the Doctor's and starts to lead him back towards the TARDIS. They stop for dinner along the way and she tells the Doctor about how she met Methos. He's less then pleased to find out that they'll be running into an Immortal on a regular basis, but seems to accept it as unavoidable. After dinner she makes a point to lecture him on manners while he installs the new piece though.

The second through fifteenth time she meets him is in a quick two month period. They are chasing after a series of temporal bombs that have been scattered throughout Earth's history. She finds it funny that something that could destroy the planet looks so pretty. The bombs are green spheres, about ten centimeters in diameter and glowing softly. Methos has an uncanny ability to be where they are and she begins to look forward to seeing him. Sometimes he already has the bomb and they can move on rather quickly. Other times he only knows where they are and they have to go and retrieve them together. Despite the seriousness of the situation she likes the latter scenarios better as they give her chances to spend time with Methos.

He's always something different. In the thirteenth century he's a monk in a German monastery. Another time, he's a scribe in the Babylonian court. He's a Greek philosopher and a Roman Senator. One time they land on a hill above a camp of some sort. Before they can walk ten feet from the TARDIS, he shows up. His hair is longer than she's ever seen it and his face is painted half blue. He glares at the Doctor and hands her the bomb then turns away. She reaches out to stop him and he grabs her wrist, holding is painfully tight.

"Leave now." He spites the words at her and now that she's this close she can see the dried blood on his clothes. He releases her wrist and again starts to walk down the hill. The Doctor shakes his head at her and leads her back to the TARDIS. She never asks Methos about that time and he never offers to talk about it. It will remain as the only time she's ever been afraid of him though.

The sixteenth time she meets him (and she can't believe she's keeping count) is when they've stopped for a break in Paris. She's never seen Paris before and it's New Years Eve 1999 when they materialize on the bank of the Seine. They don't even have a chance to leave the TARDIS before someone is banging on the door. It turns out to be a woman with a bleach-blonde page boy cut. She pushes past her and rushes over to the Doctor.

"Now don't you look nice this time round." The woman says as she sizes up the Doctor. The Doctor only has a chance to say Amanda before the woman is pulling him out the door and down the bank. She has no choice but to follow and finds herself grinning in delight as she sees Methos sitting on the deck of a barge with two other men.

The next time she meets him (and she's determined to not keep count anymore) the TARDIS has materialized in the wrong time zone and the wrong galaxy. Leaving the Doctor to sort out the problem she goes outside. It's the middle of the night and the beginnings of a meteor shower is showing in the sky. At the top of the hill in front of her she sees a figures sitting down. She climbs the hill and is strangely not surprised to see Methos. She sits down next to him and leans back on her hands.

It takes him a minute to look at her and then he asks, almost hesitantly, "Who are you?"

Knowing what he must have felt when she first met him she simply smiles and says, "Martha Jones."

Together they sit on the hill and watch the meteor shower. It ends shortly before the sun comes up and it's then that Methos turns to her again. "My name is Methos. Thank you for sitting with me." He then gets up and starts to walk down the hill, away from the TARDIS. It's only as the light gets brighter that she can see the body laying on the side of the hill, the head having rolled to the bottom. Feeling more than a little sick she gets up and goes back to the TARDIS. It's one thing to know about the Game it's another to see the aftermath.

She doesn't see him again until after the Master has taken over and she's running from the Toclafane. It's Immortals that guide her across the planet. They've had centuries, millennia, of experience at hiding and know most of the old cities better than anyone else could. The Watchers carry messages and warning for the resistance, such as it is, arranging transport and guides for her. He's waiting for her in Russia and they spend two months traveling across it. She doesn't think that he believes her story, but he pretends to for the other listeners. All too soon they reach the Atlantic and send out the signal for the boat. Methos tells her that the captain's name is Connor MacLeod, kinsman of Duncan's who'll be waiting for her in Alaska.

They spend one last night together before another Immortal finds them. Most Immortals had taken the Master and the Toclafane as the end of the Game. Some had taken them as a sign of the Gathering. It's one of the latter that intercepts them on their way to the beach to meet Connor. Methos meets him sword for sword and tells her to run. She runs to the beach where Connor is waiting and he quickly gets her settled. As they pull out into the ocean she can see Toclafane descending from the sky and lighting striking up from the ground. She tries not to cry, telling herself that Methos won, but she can't know for sure.

She doesn't see him again until after Jack calls her to Torchwood. Ianto is manning the tourist desk and calls her up when a man refuses to leave without talking to her. She stands in shock at seeing Methos standing there. "How did you know I'd be here?"

"You told me." Then he smiles at her and she's hugging him so hard it hurts. Somehow the thought that there will be a twentieth meeting (because she's still keeping count) makes the past few days seem bearable.


End file.
